Dating isn't easy – just ask Dr. Nerdlove. It's a lot easier if you've got common interests to break the ice with and get the conversation flowing. In Japan, there's anime. There's also one of Japan's most popular games.

Japan got the short straw this holiday
season with the PS4 coming out in February and no specific release date for the
Xbox One. So what gaming console IS on people's Christmas wish lists in the Japan?

There will be Mario and Luigi costumes in the 3DS' Monster Hunter 4 according to today's Japanese version of Nintendo Direct. For those of us who like bizarre, disturbing things in our games, this is great news.

Remember how popular Monster Hunter was on the PSP in Japan? And how it became a system seller for the Sony hardware? And how the PSP was pretty much the machine Japanese people used to play Monster Hunter? Remember that?

The fourth Monster Hunter game Monster Hunter 4 (okay, so it's actually the twentieth game... They've got a screwy number system) will be adding a bunch of new creatures and features into the mix. Already announced is the grabbing/climbing function, the "insect controlling stick" (or as I call it, the "bug stick"),…

A demo of Capcom's Monster Hunter 4 on the 3DS was up for play at the Tokyo Game Show, and here's how the 15-minute gameplay was. They provided me with 3 different quests with a ranging difficulty of easy, medium and hard, and a premade set of armor for each of the special weapons in-game. I chose the newest weapon…

In the West, few people care about Monster Hunter. Most really do not give a flip. Japan, however, is another story. There is one game Japan seems to desire more than any right now. That game is Monster Hunter 4.

The Monster Hunter series will be getting its "fourth" numbered game (Seeing as they seem to have a different numbering system from the rest of us… What kind of game series considers "3rd" and "3" (tri) as two separate numbers?) next year with Monster Hunter 4 scheduled for release in Spring 2013.